Improvement in apparatus for evaporating saccharine juices



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LEVVISJ. WHITCOMB AND E. PRALL, OF MAINEVILLE, OHIO.

IMPROVEMENT IN APPARATUS FOR EVAPORATING SACCHARINE JUICES.

Specilieation forming part of Letters Patent No. 35,481, dated June 3, 18H2.

l LJ @ZZ wL-om'lit, may con/cern,.-

. Be it known that we, LnwIs J. WHI'rooMn and WILLIAM E. PRALL, both of Maineville, NVarre-n county, Ohio,vhave invented a new and useful Improvement in Saccharine Evap orators; and we do hereby declare thel following to be a full, clear, and ,exact description thereof, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making part of this speeiiication.

This is an improvement in the class of apparatus employedr to inspissate the sap of the sorghum and other saccharine plants; and the invention has reference to devices for .the rapid boiling of the` crude sap and for the proper circulation of the liquor and separation of feculencies. q p

A furnace, Ais surmounted by a series of pans, B, B', B, B, and O, whosebottoms are all on a level, the primary or evaporating pans B B', &`c., being broad and shallow, and

situated over the hottestl portion of the lire for the rapid evaporation of the crude sap, and

the final boiling-pan O being farthest from the iire and having highsides, 'so as to contain a large body of liquor to prevent scorching.' A free communication can be opened simultaneously between the lower portions .of the series, ofuirst boiling-pans through apertures `D at mid-length of their: dividing-walls, by'

means'of a series of valves, E, attached to a common stem, F,`operated by a lever, Gr, o r

other suitable appliance. rlhe valves E are made somewhat longer than the apertures D, so as, in additionto their functions as valves, to act asdeiiectors to cause the passing liquor` to"circulate overthe'entire pan-floor and prel vent the` lodgment thereupon of sediment, which is carried forward by the meandering streamr thus created, the scum or lighter impurities being at the same time detained by' the partitions or walls between the pans and by the valves E. u

HH are two settling-pans or defeeators, suspended from derrieks I-one on each side of the furnace. Vhile the contents of one of these pans is settling the other pan maybe receiving crude liquor from the evaporators, or may bevdiseharging its settled and clear liquor into the final boiler O. Each defecator has a faucet, J,'having around its plug, j, a spiral channel, j', so that by turning the plug the discharging-orifice may be made to tap a lower and lower stratum of the liquor, so as to preheat the sap and cause it to boil the moment`it enters the pan, thus saving heat and time in the operation. We claim as new and of our invention- 1. The arrangement of a rangeof boilingpans upon a common level, communicating through aperturesadapted to be simultane-y ousl y opened or closed by the connected series of deflectingvalves E, constructed andoperating substantially as and for the purposes set forth. y

2. The arrangement of side defeeators or settling-pans H H,adapted to be elevated and depressed, andoperated in the manner set forth.

3. The decanting-faueet J j j, having a provision for gradual descent of the discharging aperture or ventage,`as and for the objects stated;

4. The arrangement of reservoir M, which receives crude sap from the mill and dis-` charges the same into the first boiling-pan by a pipe, N, which traverses the furnace, for preheating of the crude sap, as set forth.

In testimony of whiehvinvention we here- Witnesses:

Guo. H. KNIGHT, HENRY C. NICHOLSON. 

